The Five Doctors Again
by TimeLordParadox
Summary: What if the fourth Doctor wasn't trapped in the vortex during 'the Five Doctors? What if he had appeared in the death zone with the other Doctors? This story explores that possibility.
1. Prologue

Plot: What if the fourth Doctor wasn't trapped in the vortex during 'the Five Doctors'? What if he had appeared in the death zone with the other Doctors?

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**Authors Notes:** This is not a complete re-write of the Five Doctors, it will only detail how events might have happened if the fourth Doctor did appear in the Death Zone with the other Doctors and will be written mostly from the Fourth Doctor's and Romana's point of view.

This story will contain spoilers to the real 'the Five Doctors' since its plot occurs along side it.

Minor Note: I don't know if anyone else has tried this before, if anyone has I just want to say that I'm not trying to steal the limelight from 'their' version or from anyone else's version.

Enjoy

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**Doctor Who**

Tom Baker

In

**The Five Doctors**

By TimeLordParadox

(Aka Ross Pickering)

Based off the TV episode originally written by Terrance Dicks.

(Shada dialogue originally written by Douglas Adams)

**Prologue**

In a dark control room on the planet Gallifrey a man stands poised at the controls of his machine, a very advanced machine, a machine which had been deactivated for centuries, it was primitive he admitted but it would serve his purpose. The mans black gloved hands played over the controls. He had one goal in mind, but he couldn't accomplish it not himself so he had enlisted 'help' from a TimeLord called the Doctor.

But not just one Doctor, more Doctors, the Doctor in all five of his currently existing incarnations. He had the first, an old man with white hair who he snatched in a garden on Earth, the second Doctor also on Earth visiting an old friend who he also snagged up. The third Doctor also on earth driving an outdated mode of transport, more outdated this his usual travel machine, his old crock of a type 40 TARDIS.

But the Doctor usually travelled with companions, human pets though he'd never regarded them as pets. He had been watching the Doctor and he knew him, he was at his most effective when he had someone to show off to. So the shadowy man had also captured some of his past companions, his grand daughter going under the name Susan from Earth in the year 2188 which he'll allow to meet up with the first Doctor. Then he picked up an earth girl from 1983 who had been with both the third and fourth Doctors.

He conceded what he was doing was incredibly dangerous and potentially damaging to the timeline if he wasn't careful, but the price for what was at stake for him was too high. He picked up a pair of wax figures one resembled the earth girl called Sarah Jane Smith the other the girl Susan. He placed them down on a pedestal which had a model of, 'the Death Zone' a small area on Gallifrey where thousands of years ago the Timelords used to kidnap other beings to fight each other for their own entertainment. The games had been stopped by Rassilon, the greatest of all the Timelords, now the only thing remarkable about the Death Zone the sight of the _Great Tower of Rassilon_, which served as his tomb.

With all five Doctors working at different angles towards the tower then one of them would work out a way of getting through its defenses.

The model depicting the Death Zone was divided into five separate sections each one a different starting point for each of the Doctors and in the dead centre of these different five zones was the Tower of Rassilon. On the model were several other small figures which were in the shape of the other three Doctors and their companions.

The man in the dark robes placed Sarah's figure next to the one of the third Doctor then placed Susan's figure down next to the first Doctor, they will meet up soon enough with time he decided.

He turned back to the machine, the 'Time Scoop' as it was once called, to go for his next target, the fourth Doctor. Using the Time Scoop he searched the Doctors timeline for a suitable position where he could pluck him out without any overall damage to web of time.

It was difficult because this Doctor seemed to love getting into trouble, there was not one instance in his timeline where he wasn't doing anything but meddling in the universe somehow. He can't just pluck him out from wherever he pleased it had to be just right, but this was unfortunate, there wasn't a single instance in this Doctors long life where he could safely remove him and not suffer unstable effects, if not to the web of time then to the Doctor's timeline itself endangering his future fifth incarnation.

He weighed the options and decided to go for the most suitable time where it was safe to lift him out.

The Doctor was on Earth, he seemed to have an affinity for Earth, specifically a tiny damp little island called Britain and was specifically in a place called, Cambridge. A screen above the console he was working on a picture of him the Doctor came into view. A tall man with long curly hair and quite large smiling teeth, he was wearing a hat over his curls, a white shirt with a brown waist coat, boots and brown trousers.

In this time period he was travelling with Romanadvoratrelundar, who he had started calling Romana for short. She wasn't as he remembered when she left Gallifrey to join the Doctor, she had obviously regenerated the same process which allowed there to be five different Doctors. This version of her was slightly shorter with long blond hair reaching down her back.

The Doctor appeared to be on a narrow boat on a river, which seemed to have old looking buildings around and plenty of greenery. The Doctor stood at one end of the boat using a long pole to push the boat along, a very primitive form of propulsion, while Romana was sitting in the boat at the other side reading a book while a strange looking horn like device played the earth equivalent of music.

"Wordsworth" came the Doctors deep voice "Brumford, Christopher Smart, Andrew Marvel, Judge Jefferies" was he speaking to her in an alien language or was that a list of something?

"Owen Chadwick" he suddenly said pointing at Romana as if he had realised something.

"Who?" distracted Romana looked up from her book.

"Owen Chadwick, oh yes." He said as he raised the wooden pole and dropped it back into the water then pushed on it to propel the long thin boat along. "One of the greatest labourers in history of Earth in the first era"

"Newton of course" said Romana looking at something on the shore the shadowy figure could not see.

"Oh! Defiantly Newton" the Doctor said

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, yes?" Romana asked

"That's right" came the Doctors words, it was such a simple idea why was the Doctor being so admiral that a bunch of primitives had worked it out?

"So Newton invented punting" said Romana smiling at the Doctor, 'punting' must be what the Doctor is doing with that long pole, he surmised, a mode of transport which was an ideal example of the third law of motion.

"Oh yes!" the Doctor said smiling "There was no limit to Isaacs' genius"

He called a primitive a genius for discovering something the shadowy figure himself had known while humans still hadn't worked out how to turn the first wheel?

They were going under a bridge now and were coming out the other side.

"Isn't if funny how something so primitive can be so…" Romana searched for the words

"Graceful?" the Doctor suggested

"No simple, you push in one direction and the boat goes in the other"

"Yes, it's pure genius"

This was during one of the Doctors 'adventures' and by the look of his time stream an important one because it would lead to something disastrous if he didn't live it. But it was the only place he could safely lift the Doctor free of his time stream. Making up his mind he set the controls to snag the Doctor, he could always return him to this exact time and place when he was finished, the scoop was sent.

"Oh I do live the spring, all the leaves and colours" Romana said looking around at the trees

"It's October" the Doctor said

"I thought you said we were coming here for May Week?" Romana asked

"I did" he admitted lifting the pole out of the water again "May weeks in June" confusion crossed Romana's face and she shook her head slightly

"I'm confused" she said

"So is the TARDIS, haha" he laughed slightly 'TARDIS' was the name he gave to his outdated transport through out space and time, a name which had now been adopted by the translation circuits of all 'TARDISes' so it translated as TARDIS instead of its real name which primitive humans wouldn't be able to pronounce in human tongue.

"Oh I do love the autumn, all the leaves and colours" Romana said again correcting her previous mistake. Where was that time scoop? He was growing impatient!

"Yes, well with something as simple as a punt nothing can go wrong" the Doctor said comparing his outdated mode of transport to that even more outdated mode of transport. "No coordinates and no dimensional stabilizers" he said lifting the pole out of the water again and using it to push them along.

"Nothing" he added "Just the water, the punt…" he dropped the punt down into the water again "a strong pair of hands…" he strained to say as he pushed on the pole. "…and a pole" he didn't notice that his hands slipped off the pole and he was no longer holding it. It was now sticking out of the water being left behind as the boat continued on its way. When the Doctor realized this he tried to reach back to grab it but it was just out of reach now, he waved his arms as he began to lose his balance and was about to fall into the water when…

There it was! The time scoop, a large black triangle coming from the sky towards him, the Doctor hadn't noticed it and could do nothing as it enveloped both of them, they and the boat vanished in an instant as it swallowed them up then raised itself back into the sky heading back towards Gallifrey.

The shadowy figure placed his hands on the controls, he now had to guide the Doctor to Gallifrey carefully but the position which he plucked him from was so riddled with possible time paradoxes that navigation proved difficult. Something was wrong! He was losing the Doctor, no! If he lost the fourth Doctor then the fifth Doctor would certainly feel the effects. If he couldn't stop it then he'd have to try to seal him inside the vortex to make sure he doesn't destroy the fifth Doctor and his whole future beyond that point.

It wasn't working! He hit the control panel in frustration. But wait! Yes, he was coming out of that tangled mess of a time stream he occupied. Excellent, he was heading towards Gallifrey and would join his 'other selves' in the death zone.

A pair of plastic three inch high figures faded into view in a window above the machine, he picked them up. One was of the Doctor in his ridicules garb of a long brown coat and extremely long scarf. The other was Romana, wearing similar clothes to what she wore in the image he'd just seen. These weren't really the Doctor and Romana, simply representations the real Doctor and Romana were currently stuck in the Time Scoop waiting to be set down where he wanted. He placed both down in a vacant section of the map, and the section of the map began to glow and pulsate as the scoop proceeded to dropped them down there. The pulsating light became constant indicating they had arrived.

Now for the last Doctor, the fifth who was the only one not on earth which was a change, he was at a place called the Eye of Orion. He must be feeling the effects of these time snatches from his timeline since he was 'current' and probably felt a great jab of pain as each one had been taken from his time stream. He must be feeling an enormous bout of pain now as his fourth incarnation was technically ripped from his timeline rather then simply lifted out. He didn't know if the fifth Doctor would now be fit to join this quest because of it but a simple encounter with his first and most stable incarnation will fix that. When he captures the fifth he'll set him down near the first Doctor to give him a strong link to his timeline.

He walked away to operate the time scoop, one final time scoop and he'd have all of them and they would unwittingly give him what he desired most, immortality.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

The Doctor waved his arms to stop himself falling, he had a feeling he was going to get very, very wet if he fell in the river, but he started to regain his footing. Maybe they should go see if Professor Chronotis was back in his room yet he decided. But suddenly the entire scene changed around him, he was no longer on the Cambridge campus, on a punt in the river. He wasn't even on the river.

"Pole?" Romana said regarding the pole the Doctor had just let go of which wasn't even there anymore either.

The punt slammed into solid, earthy ground as if it had been suspended above it and whatever has holding it up had decided to let go. The Doctor fell over out of the punt and into the tall grass. The record player also jumped and stopped working from the impact.

"Doctor!' came Romana's worried voice "Doctor…" her voice changed to one of confusion "…where are we?"

The Doctor climbed up off the damp grass and brushed down his clothes before turning to take in their new surroundings.

"I have no idea" he said, the area around them was exceedingly hilly and grassy, sort of like the Yorkshire Moors in England only it was very misty and exceedingly cold. He walked up to the punt which lay on the bed grass and pulled from it his long velvet brown frock coat which was folded in the bottom of the boat and he wrapped an incredibly long multicoloured scarf around his shoulders. It did keep him warm and it was useful though a pity he always kept tripping over it, and in all his adventures it kept stretching and had become longer and longer.

"Do you think we encountered a fold in local space/time?" Romana asked as she climbed out of the boat herself, her high heel shoes sank directly into the mud and she signed annoyed with herself.

"I told you those shoes weren't suitable" the Doctor said as his own leather boots walked over the damp surface without sinking.

"We were only going to visit a friend of yours in Cambridge" Romana said as she struggled to get her shoes free "I didn't expect to be pulled through a time warp and dropped here."

"Serves you right!" the Doctors said as he took from his coat pocket an old fashioned spyglass and stretched it out as far as it would go. He then started surveying the area looking around for any clue of where they were. "Considering how often we have to move around through space and time I thought you at least would've seen the reason to discarded such footwear which is most unsuitable for time travelling and adventuring"

"Unsuitable?" Romana said "As unsuitable as a forty foot scarf that keeps tripping you up?"

"Yes exactly" but the Doctor wasn't really listening as he picked out nothing but tall grass everywhere and hills and large boulders and in the distance, tarmac a road. He smiled showing his large teeth.

"Hardly matters Romana, there's a road up ahead, we can travel along that" he said handing the telescope to her. She then placed it up to her eye to take a look around as the Doctor leapt back into the punt and began looking for something.

"What good will that do?" Romana asked "We don't know where we are"

"All roads lead to Rome, Romana" the Doctor said as his right hand dive into his inside coat pocket and pulled out the Sonic Screwdriver, a long thin device with a red circular tip to it which sort of made it look like a magnifying glass with a very small lens. _Stupid expression_ he thought 'A_ll roads lead to __Rome__'? All roads lead somewhere not just Rome and roads especially tarmac ones meant a civilization of some sort since tarmac was geologically rare in the sense that it didn't usually form naturally and even if it did it wouldn't be a long ribbon of it twisting around the hills._

He adjusted the settings on his Sonic Screwdriver and it started to emit a series of clicks like a giga counter he placed it in the boat and the series of clicks started to become faster and as he moved it closer to the boats hull the clicks became even louder and more rapid. Satisfied to turned it off and leapt out of the boat.

"You know what I think?" the Doctor said suddenly as he turned around to face Romana who was still looking around their surroundings through the spyglass.

"That we're not in Cambridge anymore?" Romana asked

"True, but I don't think we came through a space/time fold or even a time warp." He said as he came closer to her, his boots making the vegetation squelching under his feet. "Whatever brought us here has the distinct energy signature of Gallifreyan technology"

"What?" Romana asked almost incredulously that the Timelords were interfering with their travels again.

"Can't even wait for me to return to the TARDIS!" the Doctor bellowed raising his arms and circling here he was looking for any sign of them, "Did you have to abduct me in front of thousands of people?" no reply came the entire place was just silent except for the gentle cold breeze and the ruffle of the grass on the ground. "Well listen carefully! Whatever it is you want from me…" he paused making sure they were listening carefully "I refuse! I'm not doing it! You had my full attention on Skaro and during the Key to Time! I defeated Morbius for you and now that you can't take control of the TARDIS anymore you directly kidnap me!"

The Doctor had fitted a randomizer circuit to the TARDIS so no one knew where they were going, not even the Doctor himself as it picked out a random set of space/time coordinates, but it also bypassed the Timelords control over the TARDIS which was an added bonus considering he just used it so a very powerful and deadly enemy would never be able to track him down.

Still no reply from the no-show Timelords, he was going to show them! He wouldn't do what they asked, he was just going to sit here on the punt listening to music and wait for them to return them back to Cambridge. He didn't care what the Timelords wanted him to do nor did he care about the consequences if he didn't do it. He just wanted to show the Timelords they couldn't order him about like this.

The Doctor lightly sighed as he went over to the punt and got back inside, sat down and began toying with the record player. He knew in the future you could get compact disks or CD's as they are called, more advanced he'd admit and much clearer sound maybe and they last longer, but to him nothing topped the simple analogue signal from the grooves of a vinyl, which was superior then any flat plastic disk of digital information of just zeros and ones, to him that just removed the subtle texture from the music.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Romana asked sighing "You're impressive Doctor but you can't reverse this using a record player"

Classical music started blaring from the speaker and the Doctor laid back in the punt and placed his hat over his eyes.

"I'm just going to sit here and do nothing" he said sulkily crossing his arms over his chest like a little boy who'd been told he couldn't play outside.

"Come on, Doctor" Romana half sighed "You're being childish"

But he wasn't listening, he was too busy ignoring the Timelords.

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**More to come soon...**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Stage one of his plan was competed, the Doctors, all five of them where in the Death Zone and all appeared to be making headway towards the tower. Only the fourth and the fifth Doctors appeared to be going nowhere. He could understand the fifth Doctor not trying to get to the tower since he would be feeling the violent effects of someone messing around in his time stream. The first Doctor would eventually find the fifth and that would stabilise and enable him to take on a more active role. But why wasn't the fourth Doctor doing anything?

He went up to the controls on his console and adjusted them so he could see what the fourth Doctor was doing. The shadowy figures ears were assaulted by strange noises which sounded like vibration of standing, harmonic waves. He got an image on the screen of the Doctor as he lay in that boat of his, hat over his eyes and his arms folded. His scarf trailed from one side of the boat and that strange horn looking device had a black disk on top rotating. The Doctor wasn't doing anything at all, only Romana seemed to be taking the initiative.

"Doctor you're being childish" she said to him "The Timelords won't just return us to Cambridge if they want something done" The Doctor remained silent and a deep noise which sounded like he was snoring loudly came, too loudly to be real.

This infuriated him, according to Romana the Doctor had worked out it was a Timelord who plucked him from the time stream and because of that he refused to do his bidding. This Doctor had always been stubborn in any shape or form, if he didn't get to do what he wanted to do he arrogantly just acted like an adolescent until something else happened. The shadowy figure thought for a moment, he'd have to give this Doctor a little quick prod as well to get him moving.

He'd given each of the Doctors enemies to fight and push them in the right direction. The first Doctor was being pushed on by a creature called a Dalek, the second Doctor had encountered another enemy race of his called the Cybermen and soon so would the Third Doctor. He'd put two sets of these creatures down for two reasons. One to push both the Second and Third Doctors in the right direction but also because something stood in the Third Doctors path that he couldn't get rid of. A Raston warrior robot, a deadly and devastating adversary left over from the games, something the Doctor himself wouldn't be able to defeat. The third Doctor would need to distract its attention while he sneaked past and a fight with a few Cybermen was ideal.

The fifth Doctor would be pushed on by the first to continue investigating, but even one of his enemies would show his face sooner or later. But he hadn't provided an enemy for the fourth Doctor yet and right now it looked like he needed a little push.

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Romana was beginning to shiver, her shoes weren't just unsuitable for the terrain but her clothes weren't designed for the cold either. She rubbed her arms to get some warmth back into them and stamped her feet as the Doctor lay there in his great big coat and long scarf.

The Doctor wasn't going to do anything but sulk she decided, so if he wasn't going to find out what was going on then she'd have to do it for him. She scowled, turned and started walking, her shoes annoyingly continued to sink into the ground whenever she took a step.

Reaching the more solid road which was nearer then she expected she turned and looked down one way then down the other. She could continue down this until she came to a town or some sort of civilisation, that's why roads were built after all, to connect settlements together. She looked back at the Doctor, she didn't really want to leave him out here in the middle of nowhere but if he wanted to sulk she'd let him.

She decided she could continue down the road or climb a gentle hill which rose up on the other side, if she could get up there she could view the a lot of the surrounding area and determine which way she should actually go. The only problem was it would be even colder up there as the wind would be stronger. She decided though to climb the hill because it could be miles to get to civilisation so might as well establish her bearings and decide which way would be better.

The ground going up the hill was much more solid then where they had landed which made climbing up it that much easier. It didn't take her long to get to the top and when she did she could see… nothing, nothing at all but grassy hills, greyish skies and mist all around.

Had the Timelords really picked them up and dropped them here? If so then what they wanted them to do couldn't be far away. Unless it wasn't the Timelords who did this but someone who just wanted her and the Doctor out of the way and thought nothing better then dropping them in the wilderness to die of starvation. Could the Black Guardian have tracked them down?

The Doctor had installed a randomiser into the TARDIS so he could escape the Black Guardian's power and ever since they had been travelling blind. They never knew exactly where they were going to land next so the Black Guardian never knew where they were. However on this occasion they were answering a distress call from an old friend of the Doctor's, Professor Chronotis a retired Timelord currently residing on Earth in Cambridge as a professor. Since they had an actual destination in mind this meant there was a possibility that the Black Guardian knew where they were going and had the opportunity to snag them.

She listened intently for any noise and tried to see any form of life in the scene she was viewing. She thought she could hear the unmistakable noise of a motor car somewhere far off in the distance being carried by the wind, but it quickly died down and stopped. Probably her imagination she decided.

She looked towards the horizon at the perfectly shaped round hills. But wait, there was a hill which didn't look 'round' at all, it was sort of pointy and jagged. This was unmistakably a building or structure of some sort. She still had the Doctor's spy glass on her and she unfolded it and lifted it up to her eye again to get a clear view.

The mist played over it and because of its distance it looked half faded away but Romana recognised it instantly, when she did she felt twice as cold as she had done a minute ago. She knew what that was, and if she was right then she knew where they were, and if that was also true then it also meant they were in terrible danger.

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The Timelords must be getting impatient, the Doctor thought as he listened to the sound of music, and annoyed he decided. He could just imagine them in their council chambers on Gallifrey annoyingly squabbling. Sooner or later they'd have to send someone to 'convince' him to do the mission. That way he had the satisfaction of saying 'no' directly to their faces.

He didn't know how he would've felt if the Timelords just got in touch and said 'excuse me, Doctor. I know you're incredibly busy right now but would you please kindly look into a little matter for us? Thank you for your time' maybe then he would've listened to them. But now they've really 'over stepped the mark' as they say, taking control of his TARDIS was one thing but lifting himself out of space and time was quite another. Alright they had done it once before, intercepted him while he was in a transmit beam and placing him down on Skaro to alter the Daleks past. But 'that' was the Daleks, the worst creatures he's ever encountered.

He thought his days of being an intergalactic puppet were over when he saved Gallifrey and indeed the universe from Omega, with a little help from me, myself and I. He smiled as he realised the Timelords, the race who tried and convicted him of breaking the important rules of time broke some of those rules themselves, some of them twice to allow him to save the universe. For his troubles the hypocritical bunch of bores saw sense and restored his TARDIS to full working order so he could go where he liked again.

The gramophone had developed a slightly annoying pulsating buzz. The Doctor pushed his hat off his head, sat up and tried to see what it was. Something vibrating rapidly it sounded like. He lifted the needle off the record player, still he heard that awkward buzzing noise and it was just becoming louder and louder. He felt the box, there wasn't any vibration coming from there either. He flipped a switch and the turntable stopped rotating and the apparatus fell completely silent, yet the buzzing was still audible. That's when he registered that it wasn't the gramophone making that noise, it was something behind him.

He turned around and didn't know what to think. Stumbling through the grass its movements sluggish and its face blank was what looked like a plastic manikin, like the sort you saw in a clothes shop. The Doctor stood up and turned around as this figure moved closer towards him. It reminded him of something but he couldn't think what.

The pulsating got louder and louder, where had he heard that sound before? The figure stopped, raised its arm as if to point to the Doctor, however its fingers were all one piece of plastic so it couldn't clench any of its fingers. A gap opened up where its solid fingers were attached to his hand and it fell down as if on a hinge with an audible mechanical spring like noise. The fallen fingers revealed the entire hand and arm to be hollow and now extending out of it was a long silver tube which was unmistakably a gun. The Doctor suddenly realised it was going to kill him and his brain instantly remembered what it was.

An Auton!

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**Authors Notes:** I had considered several other creatures for the Doctor to face, another Dalek, Cybermen but I wanted a different enemy and it came to a competition between Sontaran, Zygon and Auton.

I decided against using the Sontarans and I didn't think the Zygons themselves, though I wanted to use them, weren't dangerous enough so I decided on an Auton.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

A whoosh type noise came from the end of the gun device and the Doctor immediately leapt out of the punt as he felt a burning impact where he was standing just seconds ago. He flattened himself to the moist ground so the punt was between him and his attacker. An audibly squelching noise could be heard as the plastic mannequin walked through the damp soil coming closer and closer to his hiding place.

It was curious, the Doctor considered, Autons were usually controlled by a central Nestine Consciousness. But this world, wherever they were, didn't look like the sort of place where plastics were readily available or in fact any type of compound, polymer or gases the Nestines could use. There was a road nearby so obviously some civilization lived here and maybe there is a Nestine consciousness somewhere on the planet but why send an Auton out here? There was nothing for miles around.

All these ideas raced through his brain as the Auton came closer and closer to his hiding place and that electric whine it produced slowly grew in volume. The only obstacle stopping the Auton from killing him right away was the punt itself, so if it wanted to kill him it simply had to take the punt out of the equation which meant either going around or smash it to pieces.

The Doctor began to crawl further along the his beached vessel –he supposed it was technically beached- in case the Auton decided to simply go around the obstacle to get a clear shot. He had to think fast how he could defeat an Auton? There was that device he created in his third incarnation but he didn't have the time or the equipment to build anything like that. He had in the latter years of his third incarnation dreamed up a particularly toxic cocktail of potent solvents, solvents dissolved plastic so he assumed solvents would be deadly to an Auton or even a Nestine. His more creative fourth incarnation had giving it the nickname 'anti-plastic'. However he didn't have the chemicals readily available to brew such a cocktail.

"Doctor!" yelled Romanas voice as she came back down a hill she had been climbing, completely oblivious to the danger he was currently in. He could just sense the Auton detecting her voice and would be re-aiming his weapon to destroy her. "We're in terrible danger!" she shouted, she didn't have to tell him that, he already knew.

"Romana!" he shouted back at her "Get down, take cover!"

She stopped, apparently she had finally spotted the danger threatening him and ducked behind a large boulder as the whoosh noise came from the Auton and the energy beam impacted where Romana had just been standing. A puff of red smoke indicated where it had impacted. She appeared oblivious to the Auton so why did she say they were in danger?

He didn't have time to consider that question. The shot had giving the Doctor a rough idea where the Auton was at this time, and it was far too close for his liking. He edged his way further along the punt being careful not to let his head or indeed any part of his body become a clear target for the Auton weapon.

Autons were controlled by the Nestines by thought control on a specific psychic wavelength, he suddenly remembered. All he had to do was jam that signal and the Auton would become a useless lump of plastic. He could also use his Sonic Screwdriver as a way of jamming the signal, however there was a drawback. The Sonic Screwdriver was not designed to be used on the psychic wavelengths so for it to be fully effective he'd have to get very close to the Auton, too close for his liking. Well it was either try that or die on the ground in the damp, and he had a reputation to consider after all.

He crawled to the front of the punt and slid himself around it quickly and crawled down the other side listening to that loud whining noise the Auton created. If he could just take it by surprise, he thought as he reached into his pocket and produced the Sonic Screwdriver. He adjusted the settings on it so the vibrations it created in the atmosphere would disrupt any psychic signals being sent to it.

Now was a good enough time as any, he supposed. He moved as quickly as he could around the rest of the punt, got to his feet and charged at the Auton. It turned to take aim but couldn't fire fast enough. The Doctor had it in a lock as he pressed the tip of the Sonic Screwdriver into the base of the Autons plastic head. He felt its body start to twitch and its movements became jerky and uncoordinated, but the plastic man wouldn't 'stop, stop'. It still kept moving.

Its gun went off again with a whoosh, it started firing in any direction it could trying to shoot the Doctor. Whatever the Sonic Screwdriver was doing it seemed to be disorientating it enough so that it's targeting mechanisms were off.

Surely he was cutting off the signal, he thought, did he have the right frequency? He stopped using the Sonic Screwdriver long enough to check the settings before jamming the screwdriver back onto the Auton as it began to regain better use of its limbs. He did have the right frequency so why wasn't it working?

Either this was a more advanced Auton then he had met before, or his Sonic Screwdriver was on the blink. Cutting off the psychic signal should cut it off from the Nestine Consciousness but for whatever reason his Sonic Screwdriver wasn't working as a means of completely disabling this automated mannequin.

He couldn't really go on doing this to the Auton forever, at some point the power cells of the Sonic Screwdriver would drain away. Where was K9 when he needed him?

The automatic mannequin fell forwards suddenly, still struggling for freedom as it pulled the Doctor down to the ground with it. Its gun arm pushed into the moist ground and as the Doctor landed on top of it, its gun barrel became embedded in the soft soil.

The Doctor got up quickly and watched with amusement as the Auton struggled to remove its gun barrel from the soft soil, he laughed at the comical sight but it soon faded away as eventually and unfortunately the Auton managed to free its gun arm,and swung it around to take aim at the Doctor before he had a chance to blast it with the Sonic Screwdriver again.

An echoing noise suddenly sounded from the sky and a ray of green light erupted from the clouds and impacted somewhere in the distance, it was followed a few seconds later by a loud cracking noise, like a thunderbolt. Then came another light ray out of the sky and lucky for the Doctor it struck the Auton directly down the centre. He could feel the heat as it shot straight into it and passed within seconds. The Automatons plastic body shook as it took the full shock of the laser bolt leaving a great clean hole straight through the top of its torso and exiting through the left leg. The rest of its plastic body had been blackened in places by the extreme heat and the loud whine noise slowly lowered in pitch and stopped completely. The plastic man fell in a crumpled mass of plastic limbs.

The Doctor looked up in time to see another green ray of light shoot down and impact where his feet where. He really felt the heat that time as he jumped backwards out of the way. What did humans say about lightning never striking twice?

"Doctor!" Romana shouted and before she said anything else the Doctor was off, running up towards her as fast as he could as green laser bolts began bombarding the area, each time producing a loud thunder crack.

He joined Romana next to the large rock she had been using for shelter against the Auton and turned back to view the scene before him. Green later bolts rained down with a loud crack like thunderbolts, they all appeared to be shooting straight out of the sky and impacting the ground with no particular target in mind.

"Unseasonably weather they're having, aren't they" he commented.

"Doctor, we're on Gallifrey!" Romana said at last.

"Gallifrey?" the Doctor asked looking up at the sky, which was grey in colour bordering on blue, surely he remembered Gallifreyan skies were a burnt orange, he had once lived there long ago but he was sure. "What makes you think that?" he asked.

* * *

Romana took the Doctor to the top of the hill where she spotted that strange tall structure in the distance. She pointed it out to the Doctor and was now observing it with keen eyes through his spyglass.

"Romana!" he said suddenly "That's the Dark Tower of Rassilon!" he exclaimed as if she hadn't noticed or knew this before. It was the main clue that gave away they were on Gallifrey.

"I told you we were on Gallifrey" she said as the Doctor folded the spyglass back up and put it in his pocket.

"Hmm" he murmured his agreement "the Death Zone" he said as he looked up at the sky "Explains the difference in sky colour, we're looking at it through a force field, changes the wavelength of light quite considerably as it passes through."

He didn't have to explain this elementary concept to her but he did like to show off his knowledge, even if it was something everyone knew, even as a Time Tot. He was just so used to travelling with species from planets where such a things were considered marvels.

"Why would the Timelords send us to the Death Zone?" Romana asked. The Death Zone was a dangerous place on Gallifrey, everyone in the citadel knew of the shameful history of this place. The Timelords created this place millennia ago when the Timelords misused their knowledge and power. They kidnapped peoples from other worlds, usually warriors and set them down in the Death Zone to watch them fight. It was only down to Rassilon that the games were finally brought to an end but some monstrous and dangerous creatures still lurked in the Death Zone left over from the games. They couldn't escape the force field setup by the Timelords to entrap them so the rest of Gallifrey was in no danger of them. But what was here that the Timelords could possibly want them to do?

"I don't know" the Doctor replied "But I'll tell you one thing" he said taking a few steps forward towards the tower which stood impressively in the distance "I bet it has something to do with the Dark Tower of Rassilon, his final resting place."

"What would the Timelords want with a dead former Galliferyan leader?" Romana asked as she walked up to where he was no standing.

"Those were only rumours Romana" the Doctor said as he mulled over the situation "some say Rassilon still lives"

"What are you talking about Doctor? The Dark Tower is Rassilons' tomb" she said

The Doctors tone became much graver "There is a story that Rassilon discovered the secret of immortality"

"Oh don't be silly Doctor, immortality is impossible even for a Timelord, even the elixir of life from the Sisterhood of Karn couldn't sustain a Timelord indefinably" it was true that the Sisterhood of Karn had remained the same for generations even centuries since none of them actually died, but the elixir had to be taken regularly to preserve the life force. Which means Rassilon would need plenty of the stuff to remain alive and even if that was the case, why fake his death?

"Rassilon found a way..." the Doctor said turning back to look at the Dark Tower which was eerily half hidden by the mists of the Death Zone. "'...and he lay sleeping in the Dark Tower, until a time when Gallifrey again needs his wisdom and power..."

"Oh, not that old nursery rhyme again" Romana said

"How did that go again" he asked as he started walking towards the Dark Tower, which by the look of it was miles away and would take them hours to get there but the Doctor now seemed determined to get to the bottom of this new mystery and had completely forgotten he wanted to act sulky because the Timelords were interfering in his life again.

Romana hurried to catch him up and could hear him muttering under his breath.

"... 'who goes Rassilons Tower...' no that's not right, '...who go... must choose above, between, below...'" he came to a sudden stop and Romana nearly walked right into him. The Doctors eyes were more wide than usual as if he had just realised something. "You know Romana..." he said pausing for a second as if trying to comprehend himself what he was about to say "...I suddenly have the extraordinary feeling of déjà vu."

* * *

**Authors Notes:** The Doctors sense of déjà vu is down to him recalling the same nursery rhyme in the same story while in his second incarnation. If this was part of the television episode I would've had that scene go just after this one. :D

Autons are supposed to be controlled by the Nestine consciousness, but since Auton Rory could operate without one in 'the Big Bang' I assume more advanced ones were completely automated.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As they continued on their way the Doctor continued to try to recall the rest of that old nursery rhyme about the Dark Tower with little success, it was a very old nursery rhyme one which Time Tots rarely sang anymore.

"So you think Rassilon might've brought us here? What for?" Romana asked as they continued along their path through the moist ground, but at this question the Doctor suddenly stopped and his voice became very grave.

"We could be here to play the Game of Rassilon" he said in a low voice

"Now Doctor I know you're becoming paranoid in your old age but..."

"Old age!" he said in outrage "I'm only 757 that's considered young!"

"760" Romana corrected "and most Timelords tend to reach at least 1000 before their third regeneration"

"Let's not start that again" he said as he continued their long trek towards the Dark Tower. Romana was around 140 or so, but the Doctor seemed to go through incarnations extremely quickly due to his dangerous life style.

"But if you are right Doctor, that Rassilon brought us here to play the Game. The first question is –assuming he is still alive- why would he? He was the one who put a stop to the games after all"

"Romana, I've learnt that Timelord history isn't always entirely accurate" he said in a tone of almost contempt as he continued "and I've found those in power usually have some primary motive for an action where the preservation of life is merely secondary and a useful cover"

Romana did admit Gallifrey's history was littered of examples of when they arrogantly used their knowledge to watch other races fight each other in death traps and lord over the lesser species tyrannically but those days ended with the days of Rassilon. He was painted as a kind and benevolent leader who stopped the Games going on and brought Gallifrey into a new Golden Age. However there were rumours that Rassilon wasn't as benevolent as the legends say, claiming he was more a tyrant then the rest of them but Romana just couldn't believe that.

The Doctor had stopped suddenly again and Romana did walk right into the back of him.

"Why have you stopped now?" she asked as she tried to move around her long scarf wearing companion to see what he was seeing.

"Romana, there's someone else here with us" he commented as he pointed towards a flat clearing between three hills where two people stood in conversation with each other. One was tall in dark clothes and sported a dark cloak and beard with slicked back black hair. The other was also tall but had fair hair and was dressed in clothes which were leaning more towards the lighter end of the spectrum then his darker friend. He wore a long white-ish coat with red trim, a pair of red and white striped trousers, with white trainers, a shirt and a cricket jumper. Romana couldn't be sure but she thought she could also see him wearing a stick of celery in his coat lapel.

The Doctor looked like he was about to shout a loud greeting towards them both when another voice cut through the air.

"Doctor! Look out Cybermen!" shouted a female voice.

"Doctor? Cybermen?" the Doctor said as he looked around both for the one calling out to him and for any sight of Cybermen.

Romana however spotted them immediately, they were coming over the hill a distance away and were advancing on the two people in the clearing

"Go Back" shouted the fair haired man to someone Romana couldn't see.

The Cybermen where humanoid in shape but had silver plated plastic and metal bodies. They were cyborgs, Romana knew that much, from the planet Mondas who had replaced their dying bodies with metals and plastics until they became more machine then organic.

"Don't just stand there!" the Doctor shouted at the two men "Run for it!"

The fair haired man turned to look at the Doctor and at the sight of the tall curly haired scarf wearing man his face seemed to light up, but that light faded as soon as he remembered they were going to be surrounded by Cybermen.

The fair haired man took a few steps back and whispered something to the man in black before they both began running away from the Cybermen. The Cybermen raised their weapons and fired at them as they retreated.

Romana and the Doctor decided to take cover as well because they noticed a few Cybermen had spotted the two Timelords and were moving around to outflank them while some began advancing towards them. As they ran Romana saw the man in black had been caught by blaster fire and collapsed to the ground. The fair haired man stopped his running and went up to the body and picked something up. He muttered something before throwing whatever it was away over his shoulder.

Romana had to turn away to see where she was running towards but risked another glance back just in time to see the fair haired man hold something up to the Cybermen, a red glow enveloped him and he slowly faded from view, he had completely vanished, obviously through some sort of transmat system.

She and the Doctor continued running around the other side of the hill to put as much distance between them and the Cybermen as possible. They came to a stop only when they were satisfied the Cybermen weren't following.

"That chap had a lucky escape" the Doctor said as they came to a stop around a large collection of stones and rocks "localised transmat system"

"You think one of them was a Timelord?" Romana asked as she tried to catch her breath, the shoes she was wearing were not good for running in either, but didn't want to say anything in case the Doctor said 'well I told you so' again.

The Doctor pulled out his spyglass again and tried to get his bearings on the Dark Tower which was now half hidden behind a tall mound. "I don't know, though the black one reminded me of an..." he trailed off for a second, either he had been distracted or he was searching for the right words "...an old acquaintance of mine. Didn't recognise the other chap though."

"Susan come on!" shouted a woman's voice, the same voice that tried to warn them about the Cybermen. The shout was immediately followed by a yelp of pain.

The Doctor leapt into action and ran towards the voices and Romana sighed as she had to follow in her less then acceptable footwear.

* * *

The Doctor came over a small hill and saw two young women, one was relatively short wearing a large fur coat over a multi coloured dress, the other slightly taller and older wearing a long grey overcoat with boots who appeared to have just tripped up over a very obscure rock and by her movements looked like she had twisted her ankle. The other woman bent down to help her up as the Doctor came down the hill as fast as his legs would carry him to see if he could offer assistance.

"Hello there!" he waved as he came up towards them "I don't know if you could help me, or rather you've already helped me after you warned me about the Cybermen and perhaps I could return the favour but I must ask since you're in the Death Zone as well if you have any idea what precisely is going on around here?"

One of the women, a short-ish woman with short brown hair stared at him in half amazement, half recognition while the other woman, who was older with longer, shoulder length hair looked at him quizzically, she did look very familiar but he couldn't quite place the face.

"Do you know this man, Tegan?" said the older woman

"We've just found another one" said Tegan, she spoke with an Australian accent, so she was form earth he guessed, but what did she mean by another one? Another Timelord?

Now the older woman was looking at him wide eyed in recognition now "Grandfather?" she asked and in that moment he knew exactly who this was.

"Susan?" he asked, not able to believe his own eyes, his own Granddaughter, here in the Death Zone on Gallifrey? But he left her on Earth in 2164... ish, with David Campbell. That was such a long time ago for him, back when he used to be shorter, old and white haired, but what was she doing here? Either way he was still overjoyed to see her after all this time and immediately took her hand and shook it.

"Susan! My dear granddaughter, it really has been a long time" he was grinning from ear to ear "and who might your charming friend be?" he asked turning to the Australian woman called Tegan.

"You don't remember me?" she asked, the Doctor gave her a look of confusion. Had they met before? He tried to place the face, short hair but maybe that had changed or perhaps...

"No, have we met before?" he asked "I do tend to lead a very complicated muddled up life" he grinned "Things don't often happen to me in the correct chronological order" something of confused realisation dawned on the womans face.

"Oh right, time travel stuff again" she said "We'll meet sometime in your future" she looked like she was having trouble getting the strange concept of time travel and the idea of meeting people out of chronological order straight in her head before saying "that's what the Doctor would say, I guess. It was right before you regenerated."

"Regenerate? Me? I still have a good few centuries left in this body I'll have you know" he said which for some reason caused Tegan to laugh slightly.

Romana eventually caught up with him at his rather touching and otherwise confusing reunion. She was carrying those unsuitable shoes in her hands, probably tired of wrecking her heels in them, well if she insisted on picking such unsuitable footwear.

"Romana!" he exclaimed "Might I introduce my granddaughter Susan Forman and my future companion Tegan...?" he realised he didn't know her second name

"Jovanka" she added to fill the gap, he smiled showing his teeth.

"Susan, Tegan this is Romana" he grinned however introductions were interrupted.

"Nice you meet you both" she said hurriedly "but I feel we should continue our greetings elsewhere, there is still a group of Cybermen coming this way"

"Ah! Right you are Romana" he said turning back towards Tegan and Susan "Do you have shelter of some sort?" he asked.

"The TARDIS" Tegan said as if this was obvious "It's this way, follow us" she turned back to Susan who was still limping "can you walk?" she asked

"Just about" she replied

"Here lean on me" the Doctor said as he helped to support Susan back towards the TARDIS. But wait a minute! He'd left the TARDIS in Cambridge on Earth, how did it get here on Gallifrey? He'll have to ask some really serious questions on their way to the TARDIS, if indeed it was his TARDIS.

* * *

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Authors notes:** All reviews are welcome


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The group of four continued along the path chosen lead by the woman called Tegan, the air was getting colder and in the distance they could see a light mist roll over the hills about to descend upon them. They continued along this path until the familiar shape of a tall blue police box came into sight in the distance and Romana smiled. Her attire wasn't suited to the cold conditions and her shoes weren't suited to the soil either, which she now carried in her hands, her socks were becoming damp from the soil and they were cold but at least she didn't have to struggle to raise each foot and pull the heels out of the ground after they sank in. She looked forward to the familiar warm interior of the TARDIS with its smooth, dry, hard floors.

As they got closer Romana realized that the TARDIS ahead of them was slightly different in shape to 'their' TARDIS. It was still in the shape of a police box but it was different in small almost obscure ways, it was slightly taller, the lamp was a different shape and it was a darker shade of blue compared to their own. Was this really the Doctor's future TARDIS or was this an elaborate trap she wondered briefly.

The Doctor seemed to accept the girls story almost without question. According to them the Doctor had been taken out of time from five different points in his own time stream, all correlating to his previous incarnations. The man in the cream coloured coat who vanished due to a transmat system was the next Doctor along from her fourth Doctor, the fifth Doctor and it was his TARDIS they were going to and according to Susan the Doctors' original incarnation was residing inside that TARDIS.

"So there are five of me now?" the Doctor asked grinning his toothy grin "though I must say I don't really care for the latest model"

Romana knew perfectly well that it was against all the written laws of Gallifrey for a Timelord meet his other incarnations but for some reason the Doctor seemed keep constantly meet himself. Once before in her own previous incarnation they almost came face to face with his second incarnation, though the timelines had crossed the Doctor avoided meeting his previous self or his previous companions because it would've made things 'too complicated' he said. As if his timeline wasn't already like a tangled mass of string constantly looping back on itself. But such a meeting meant he lived the same events more than once from different perspectives, but of course it meant he must've have the memories of the previous incarnation erased to stop a 'broken time paradox' which were extremely dangerous.

The simplest example of a broken time paradox was of someone going back in time to kill his grandfather before the time traveller's father was born, such a time paradox was a disaster in the making. The opposite of this however was a 'closed time paradox' where say someone goes back in time to meet his own grandfather but ends up meeting his grandmother and becomes his own grandfather, meaning the time travellers father is also his own son. The entire universe as riddled with similar closed time paradoxes and the causal nexus still existed in its own state of harmony with itself. There were very few events which were classified as a broken time paradox, but when they did occur it often meant untold disaster for the area of space it originated from.

As Romana mulled over the problem in her head, a thought came to her.

"Susan, sorry to ask but how did you get here?" Romana asked the Doctors granddaughter, Romana knew when the Doctor fled Gallifrey he had taken his grandchild with him yet he rarely spoke about her, in fact he never even mentioned her at all.

Susan turned to look at her, the Doctor's long scarf was wrapped around her neck once before draping over her left shoulder as he helped her to walk.

"I was on Earth when this odd globular like entirety descended and the next moment I was in the Death Zone" she said

"So you weren't with the Doctor, 'you're Doctor' when you were transported?" Romana asked. For a moment Susan looked like she didn't understand the relevance of the question.

"No, no Grandfather left me on Earth in the 22nd century" Susan said, a slight hint of hurt in her voice as she turned to look at the face of the fourth Doctor.

"Hang on a minute!" Tegan said coming to a stop "'Left?' You mean he abandoned you on your own?" her expression was one of surprise as she looked at the teeth and curls Doctor who turned to look at her, his expression became somewhat more serious and sombre then he usually was.

"Oh she didn't need a 450 something-or-other year old to look after her" he grinned slightly but stopped short of the almost trademark toothy grin he always had.

Susan just looked at the Doctor then at Tegan to say this wasn't the time or the place to press the question.

"Sorry, Romana" Susan said turning back to the Timelady "What were you saying?" though the domestic situation was over even Romana had to admit she was surprised the Doctor had simple left his granddaughter, or was it as simple as that she wondered. She continued on with her explanation.

"If whoever took the Doctor out of time was a rival of the Doctors or someone who meant him harm, then why go to the trouble of taking you out of time Susan?"

"That is a point Romana" the Doctor said as they continued closer towards the police box "I wondered how long it would take you to spot that" he said with a fake grin with a hint of sulkiness in his voice which actually showed he didn't really think of it before her.

"What do you mean?" Susan asked confused

"If whoever dumped all the Doctor's here just wanted revenge, why go to the trouble of bringing him a companion as well?"

"I get it" said Tegan "If he wanted him to die in the Death Zone then why offer him so much help?"

"Ah" said the Doctor in a low tone "but if that were true, why send the Cybermen and the Daleks into the Death Zone as well?" he asked "We all know that in the Timelords most corrupt time they never allowed the Daleks or the Cybermen to play the games, they were too good at it"

Susan had related the story of how she and her Doctor were chased through a maze followed closely by a murderous Dalek creature. Romana had met one of these before. Cybernetic worm like creatures wired into a tank like outer shell and ten times as dangerous, it was a creature that saw all forms of life as inferior and wanted nothing more than to exterminate all those that were not Dalek.

But then how did they all get here, what transported them? The Doctor mentioned it was Gallifreyan technology but there was only one type of machine on Gallifrey that could produce a globular like entity Susan described.

"Do you think the time scoop was used?" Romana asked, it was an old piece of technology which had fallen into legend. If it had not been rediscovered along with the lost Eye of Harmony years ago people probably would've denied it even existed. The details of what was known about it were specific to what it did and how it looked in a rather vague almost poetic manner but it matched what Susan described almost perfectly.

"Quite possible" the Doctor said answering her question "The technology still exists after all, and can easily be operated if you know how"

"So whoever sent us here was a Timelord?" Romana guessed

"Possible I guess" he said

"Could it have been the Master?" Tegan asked, Tegan also related that the man in black who was talking to the fifth Doctor and then captured by the Cybermen was the Master, an old enemy of the Doctors and could be considered his complete opposite.

"Oh no" the Doctor said quickly "I know the Master of old, he wouldn't kill me out right like this. He'd want to humiliate me first, or manipulate some gullible primitives into doing it for him"

"You and the Master were talking calmly as if you were friends" said Susan

"Hmm." The Doctor murmured in thought "Then perhaps the Master has nothing to do with this, perhaps he is just another pawn in the game and he doesn't realize it."

They reached the doors of the TARDIS and the Doctor's hand dived into his coat pocket to retrieve the TARDIS key, he pulled out the odd shaped key in his hand which was on a long chain. He tried to fit it into the lock but found he couldn't. The key was of an alien design and was shaped like a spade, but it wouldn't fit in the lock in a million years because for some reason his future self had changed it back to a similar Yale type lock and key.

Tegan produced her own TARDIS key and slid it into the lock and opened the doors for them. The right door swung inward into the small box and Tegan entered first disappearing into the darkness, Susan and the Doctor followed and Romana entered last closing the door behind her.

The small space of the police box opened out almost immediately and the four of them were standing in a large white octagonal shaped room, the walls were decorated with dozens of evenly spaced circular roundels and in the centre stood a six sided console with an array of switches and buttons with a glass column directly in the centre of it all which had a strange glass sculpture inside it. This was the TARDIS alright but it was of a different design to 'their' TARDIS. It looked slightly cleaner and well kept as if it had just been rebuilt. In one corner of the room was a set of chairs around a table which had an assortment of sandwiches some half eaten and fruit on it, as well as several glasses of orange juice.

"I see I've updated the TARDIS" the Doctor grinned a toothy grin, which immediately fell "I don't like it!" he said as he crossed over to the console to examine it.

"Ah, so that's where you got to my dear fellow" said the voice of an elderly man who just came through the single door that lead further into the TARDIS interior, he was followed by a young boy. The elderly man was shorter than the Doctor with long white shoulder length hair and he was dressed in a black frock coat and checked trousers which made him look like an elderly Victorian gentleman and in his hand was a brown wooden cane. He eyed the Doctor with disapproval as if he was looking at an unruly child "What kept you?"

"What kept me?" the Doctor snorted a laugh as he turned to look at the table with the small feast on it. "I see you've been having a party while I'm doing all the work."

The elderly man muttered a harrumph as he turned to Susan.

"Oh dear" said the elderly man when he saw Susan was using the Doctor to help her walk. "Oh dear, my child what's happened to you? Are you alright?"

"I just sprained my ankle" Susan explained as the Doctor helped her to walk over to a chair in on one side of the room.

"Oh good grief" said the elderly man who tried to usher them both towards the same chair, the Doctor looked slightly annoyed at the elderly man who was ordering him around like this. He began to lower Susan into the chair. "Come and sit down here" the elderly man said, and the Doctor looked annoyed again as he drew himself up to his full height. The elderly man turned to another inhabitant of this TARDIS, the boy who followed the elderly man into the console room, he looked like he was on the verge of coming out of his teens, the old man pointed his cane at him and said "You, boy!"

"I have a name you know" said the boy, he had short ginger hair and was dressed in the sort of black public school uniform.

"Boy" the old man repeated "Go to the medical wing. I assume you know where it is, and fetch the medical supplies and some bandages" he turned his cane to point at Tegan "You! Help him"

Tegan looked annoyed at the way she was being treated but held back actually saying anything. "Come on, Turlough" she said as she walked out, her heels sharply impacting the white floor showing her annoyance. The ginger haired boy followed but took one last look at the Doctor and Romana before exiting through the door which led deeper into the TARDIS interior.

"You really must be more careful my dear" the elderly man said to Susan "and what happened to the young fellow?" he asked. The Doctor coughed to get the elderly mans attention and he stood up and regarded the long scarf curly haired man with an examining look.

"Ah, yes well, let's have a look at you then" he said as he crossed the room and circled the Doctor slowly taking in every aspect of his person. He returned to the front of the Doctor before bending over and picking up the trailing end of his long multi coloured scarf. He muttered a slight laugh before letting it drop back down again. "Oh well, I must say your attire wouldn't look out of place on the mad hatter" he chuckled again.

"Charming" the Doctor said in both annoyance and sarcasm. Now the old man was regarding Romana with interest.

"A Timelady I take it?" he said to Romana, holding the top of his cane in both hands.

"I have been told" she said smiling, she knew immediately this was the Doctor, the original one. Now she could say she understood where 'her' Doctor got all of his bossy arrogant tendencies from. But then the elderly face lit up in a smile.

"Delighted to meet you, Mrs?" he said fishing for a name.

"Romanadvoratrelundar" Romana said smiling back "But I usually go by Romana"

"Romana?" he said parting his hands from the top of his cane, leaving it in his left hand. "A delightful name" he said momentarily and gently patting her on the arm before turning back to the Doctor.

"Now then" he said looking at the tall man up and down again as if he couldn't quite believe who he was seeing "What happened?"

* * *

**Authors notes:** The adventure Romana refers to is 'Heart of TARDIS' a BBC book by Dave Stone. It features the Fourth and Second Doctors.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It only took them a few minutes to relate their side of the story to the first Doctor since nothing much had happened since he and Romana arrived in the Death Zone, and the Doctor, the original one, began relating what happened to him when he arrived. The two Doctors also began shared several theories and ideas between each other, however they did this through telepathy rather than speech because it was quite a lot to get down. Romana joined in of course being a Timelady and the fourth Doctor was sure he could sense Susan sneaking a peak in as well.

_Ah Susan, you never did like being kept out of things did you?_ the Doctor thought briefly, a thought that was probably transmitted to Susan because she immediately hung up on the telepathic telephone, or it could've been his earlier self trying to telepathically scold Susan about keeping out of private conversations.

While this went on the scarf wearing Doctor did register that Turlough and Tegan had returned to the console room with a medical kit and were tending to Susan's hurt ankle, but he filed this information away, it wasn't relevant to their current discussion.

"You're talking nonsense my boy" the old Doctor said out loud breaking the telepathic conference at once "the Timelords don't take such a forward approach in things of this nature, they are to protect and serve the universe of space and time, why would they want to wish harm upon me?"

"Have you met me?" the Doctor said with a toothy grin, but the first Doctor did not seem to think this humours remark funny.

"… and why would they want five of us? Here, together in the Death Zone at the same time? Despite all the laws it contradicts" the first Doctor was almost on the verge of shouting.

"Doctor" Romana said catching the attention of both of them, who both went 'hmm?' at the same time turning to her. "Doctor" she said again looking at the older looking model to show she was referring to the first. "We were brought here by the time scoop" the old Doctor simply muttered an agreement but didn't look like he took the idea with much credit "Well the only person who could have access to such technology would be a Timelord"

"Exactly" the Doctor 'the most current Doctor' said in triumph "and the Master is a Timelord and he isn't exactly the sort to enjoy peace and harmony"

"Who is this Master you keep referring to?" the elderly Doctor said getting quite annoyed with his older self. The Master was an old school friend of the Doctors, one who would eventually like himself become a renegade from his own people. But whereas the Doctor wanted to travel and see the universe the Master wanted to conquer it. The Doctor could never understand that obsession of his. But he didn't really want to relate this information to an earlier version of himself who has yet to meet what that old friend of his would become, because if this information wasn't wiped from the old Doctors memories at the end of all this it might have implications to the strands the Web of Time had relating to his own personal history, and his own timeline was too much of a tangled mess already. Thankfully Romana came to the rescue with a more concise explanation.

"Another renegade Timelord, like yourself" Romana stated "Only one who revels in chaos and destruction"

"Very well put, Romana" the Doctor grinned again, he was obviously started to rub off on Romana, she had come a long way from the bossy Timelady who'd never taken her nose out of the books on Gallifrey, since travelling with him she'd experienced the universe rather then watch it and he felt, and he was sure Romana felt the same way, that she was much better off than if she had remained on Gallifrey or was returned immediately after that business with the Key to Time.

Turning back to his younger self he added "Anyway, it'd have to be a Timelord to transport something through the transduction barrier around Gallifrey to dump us here."

"You suggest perhaps a member of the high council?" the elderly Doctor asked, adding a hint of scepticism to his voice. The Doctor couldn't believe he used to be so stubborn, when he was 'him' he remembered he was on the run from the Timelords and by his reckoning this old man had been taken out of time when he was travelling with Dodo Chaplet and Steven Taylor, so he must realize the Timelords were still after him, in his own time stream if not in this one.

"Exactly!" he replied anyway, deciding to ignore his own scepticism "the Timelord council is in possession of artefacts dating back to the days or Rassilon and before, so only a member of the high council can know where the time scoop is and still retain the knowledge of how to work it." But the old Doctor still looked like he wasn't going to have any of it.

"How long do you two plan to squabble?" said Tegans voice who cut across their conversation. "We don't know where the Doctor, 'our Doctor' is, he could be in great danger while you two argue like this."

"He is a capable young man" the first Doctor said waving the question away "He can look after himself I'm sure"

"Oh, I doubt he's in any danger anyway" the fourth Doctor said not taking his eyes off the first Doctor but waved his hand in her general direction as if it was stray thought he didn't want to interfere in his own thoughts "if he took that transmat from the Master then wherever he ends up he's bound to be safe, the Master would have the transmat point to come out at a place of safety."

"Can you be sure?" Tegan was almost at the point of shouting at them now. He'd really have to have a talk with his new self about taking on companions who shouted this much, it really clogged up the synapses having all this stray noise.

"Yes" the two Doctors snapped at her. "You forget who the Doctor used to be" the fourth Doctor said.

"I'm sure that makes her feel so much better" Romana added dryly. The two Doctors looked at each other as they telepathically considered and then reconsidered what they were going to do.

"Well, I suppose there is one thing we can do" the scarf wearing Doctor said suddenly.

"Oh, what might that be my boy?" the first Doctor said.

"I follow 'my' original plan" he emphasized the word 'my' since he is referring to his future self, oh Timelords never did invent a good terminology when it came to time travel.

"You're going to the Dark Tower?" Romana asked

"Yes" the fourth Doctor said gleefully with a toothy grin

"But there could be great danger!" the first Doctor said

"Yes" the fourth Doctor said again letting his voice raise another octave.

"But that's where whoever sent us wants us to go!" Romana said

"Yes!" the fourth Doctor said again in the same tone of voice as the last one. "And what better way to solve this then going up to the front door and knocking?"

He turned to immediately act on his plan and went up to the console and stood at the controls. They had been recently changed and rearranged, and now he didn't know where anything was at all. But he could quickly work it out, it all seemed to be in a logical pattern, one panel for flight coordinates, another for the state of the TARDIS shield system, one for picking up transmissions –he didn't need that right now- When he thought he had the controls worked out he moved his hands to set the coordinates for the Dark Tower. But... the coordinates were already set for the Dark Tower, this didn't make much sense, why didn't his other self simply take the TARDIS in the first place.

"We can't take off" Tegan said, and it was as if a stone had dropped in his stomach.

"Indeed" the first Doctor said looking unnecessarily smug "the TARDIS is stuck here because of the force field from the tower. If you had paid more attention to me in the telepathic conference you would've known that." But the fourth Doctor refused to accept defeat.

"Oh well, I fancied a long walk anyway" he said as he moved to open the doors but then found even the red door opening lever wasn't there anymore.

"I still say we should stay here and wait for the others" the elderly Doctor said exasperatedly as the fourth Doctor tried to locate the door opening mechanism.

"Our other two selves will probably be at the tower by now, I don't want to miss the reunion" he looked down at the controls again. Tegan suddenly stepped forward and pulled on a red panel which came out away from the console on a long telescopic strand of metal. _The exact panel he was going to chose before she flipped it for him_, he told himself.

He only muttered a slight inaudible 'thank you' to the Australian as he turned to leave

"Romana" he called for his assistant.

"Yes Doctor" she approached the door

"Stay here and make sure the old fellow doesn't regenerate too early" he said

"Now look here my…" but the first Doctor couldn't complain fast enough as the curly haired, long scarf wearing Doctor disappeared through the double doors outside the TARDIS.

* * *

The Doctor closed the exterior police box doors of the time machine and began strolling down the hill towards the tower. He had no idea how that old fool survived to such a ripe old age when he kept arguing with people who had more experience with this time and space adventuring then he did.

After a few steps away from the TARDIS he heard the sound of the TARDIS door opening again and the sound of footsteps running up to join him. He stopped but didn't turn to look at her, he could tell who it was instantly from the little traits such as the shoes she was wearing and the length of her stride, it was Tegan.

"What are you doing here?" he asked flatly as if he was in a mood

"You can't go there on your own!" she said

"It's going to be dangerous" the Doctor said

"Has it been anything but dangerous since I first stepped into the TARDIS?" she asked, the Doctor shrugged. How did she expect him to know? He hasn't met her properly yet.

"I'll have to take your word for it" he turned to face her and gave her a toothy grin. If he was going to travel with and trust her in the future then was there any reason she wouldn't be capable of looking after herself?

"Come along then" he said as he turned and began walking towards the Dark Tower the tassels of his long multicoloured scarf trailing the ground.

* * *

**To Be Continued…**

* * *

**Authors notes:** All reviews are welcome.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It was an odd experience the Doctor had to admit, meeting yourself. True he's done it on several different occasions, but it was still an unusual experience. It would be even more unusual if he could actually recall the events from his other incarnations point of views.

It made sense that since he had just met himself that he should remember being the original version of himself having that conversation with the taller curlier version. Yet, he couldn't recall that. But he must have re-live this same adventure through his other incarnations eyes, first, second and third meaning he's already had this adventure three times so far and should know what was going on, but when he tried to think of it he kept coming up with a blank as if there was a mental barrier preventing him from accessing those memories.

He remembered the time, while in his third incarnation, having met his second and first self when he fought Omega, but only from the point of view of the most current version of himself. He couldn't recall living that adventure from his counter parts' point of view. He decided to file this anomaly away in his brain for further consideration because it would tax too much of his mind away from the matter at hand. Like who was meddling in his personal time stream, and why do they want him to try to enter the Dark Tower?

The Doctor and Tegan came to a stop at the top of a hill where they could see the Dark Tower quite clearly in the cold air. For a tomb it was utterly massive, about as tall as a fifty sort building but then Rassilon was a very important person. It sort of reminded him of the pharaohs of Egypt on Earth who attempted to achieve immortality through entombing their embalmed bodies in large stone structures that mapped the stars on Earth. Something shifted in the back of the Doctor's mind, the same sense of déjà vu as before, a déjà vu he was still unable to place.

While on the hill the Doctor pulled out his telescope from his coat pocket and extended it to get his bearings.

"Are you sure we've been going the right way?" Tegan asked coming to stand next to him.

"Of course I'm sure" he said adjusting the focus of his spy glass "I have a superb sense of direction." They hadn't been following the same path his future self had taken a few minutes ago to get to the Dark Tower because he felt this direction was quicker and that his own sense of direction was far superior in every way. What was he thinking coming that way? This way was much easier. However the Doctor didn't want to admit even too himself that they had strayed off course, somewhat.

"Ah HA!" he said grinning his toothy grin.

"What have you found?" Tegan asked

"A road" the Doctor said simply, the same road he found earlier he assumed.

"Oh is that all?" Tegan said sighing.

"And where do roads lead?" the Doctor asked mysteriously

"All roads lead to Rome" Tegan said clearly not interested. What did his future self see in her? "Or..." she said sounding like she was catching on "The Dark Tower?" The Doctor lowered his spy glass and glanced at her sideways in a look of approval.

"Exactly" he said folding his extending spy glass away and popping it back in his pocket before setting off down the hill towards the concrete road with Tegan at his heels. _All roads lead to Rome? _He suddenly thought again _I still think that's a ridicules saying._

"Do you think the others will be alright back in the TARDIS?" Tegan asked in an attempt to make conversation.

"Oh yes" the Doctor said "Though I should be more worried about us."

"Why us?" Tegan asked, a slight tone of fear rising in her voice.

"Well" the Doctor began as he reached into his pocket and produced a small, white, paper bag. He dipped his hand into it and pulled out a jelly baby which he popped into his mouth and chewed as he spoke. "The Timelords of old brought many terrible, dangerous and deadly creatures into the Death Zone to fight each other for survival, most of which I imagine are still here. Would you like a Jelly Baby?" The Doctor said casually offering Tegan one of the sweets from the paper bag.

"No thanks" she said before adding "but thanks for sharing those thought." a sense of fear still subtly present in her voice. "What sort of creatures?" The Doctor could sense that Tegan didn't really want an answer to that question but found himself answering it regardless.

"Oh nothing too dangerous" he stated trying to calm her fears as he replaced the bag in his pocket "The Timelords never let creatures that could play the Games too well into the Death Zone, it would be over too soon and where would the entertainment be in that?"

"You mean creatures like the Cybermen?" Tegan asked with irony in her voice.

"Well..." the Doctor trailed off as he thought, it was true that Cybermen were present in the Death Zone and they could play the games very, very well. And there were the Autons here as well. Though not as dangerous as Cybermen they had an unfair advantage none the less as in not being technically alive or able to feel pain. The Doctor wondered if perhaps whoever had brought the Autons and the Cybermen here hadn't brought anything else as nasty into the zone for them to face. "...lets just hope we don't meet any other nasty creatures out here" he raised his hand to Tegan to show he had his fingers crossed.

It took them only a few minutes to reach the road the Doctor had spotted earlier and begin following it. Though it didn't occur to the Doctor at first he just realised this would be the ideal place for an ambush if he were planning one. They had the low ground and they were surrounded by hills on all side. Thankfully Tegan wasn't having these same thoughts he realised when she asked a question.

"Hey Doctor, if this is Gallifrey why is there a road here?"

"Yes, I wondered that myself" the Doctor stated trying to take his mind off the possible imminent attack "It could be for races that possessed primitive forms of transport that could only work on such surfaces. The Timelords of the Dark Times liked to give each race their own individual advantages and disadvantages, makes it more interesting for them when the races clash."

Tegan suddenly came to an abrupt stop and the Doctor continued walking a little ways before he realised she had stopped.

"What's the matter?" he asked turning to face her.

"I don't know, but Doctor, is that a car over there?" she asked tilting her head from one side to the other as if this would clear her vision to reveal it to be something else. It only looked like a car however, because it 'was' a car. An old fashioned, bright yellow Edwardian style roadster that the Doctor recognised instantly and his mouth split into a wide smile.

He approached it from the rear end and patted the back seat as if it was a dog and chuckled as he got into the driver's seat.

"Bessie!" he proclaimed placing his hands on the wheel. He wasn't as fond of motor vehicles as he was in his third incarnation but seeing the yellow vehicle again just brought a warmness to his hearts.

"Tegan Jovanka, meet Bessie, my car" he said looking around his vehicle, he hadn't seen it for centuries and it really brought back memories. Professor Kettelwells Robot, the Silurians, the Daemons, Axons, the giant Spiders of Metebelis III.

"For some reason I didn't see you as a car person." Tegan commented standing next to the car.

"Well..." the Doctor said "not now maybe, but exiled to Earth with no TARDIS I needed some method of getting about"

That was funny though. His previous self had left the keys in the ignition, how careless of himself. He would have to have words with himself about this. Where was his other self anyway. He looked around his current position for his other self but could not see to locate him. Why would he abandon Bassie here? It was most unlike the him before him.

He reached out and turned the key hoping to hear the roar of the roadsters engine again. The engine did make a noise but it wasn't one the Doctor expected. It choked and coughed but did not start, the car sounded like it was in agony and he stopped turning the key for a few seconds before turning the key again to see if the result was the same. The engine chocked and coughed and again refused to start, but it did start to produce quite a lot of smoke from under the bonnet, and the Doctor's child like grin slowly turned to a frown. This pretty much explained why his third self had abandoned the vehicle. He had a joke coming into his mind about taking the car for an MOT, but for some reason he didn't have the heart to voice it.

* * *

Everything was proceeding as the shadowy figure had planned. Though the first Doctor was safely out of the way in the current Doctor's TARDIS, the second Doctor was proceeding through the underground tunnels under the Tower and the third Doctor was facing off against the Raston Warrior Robot, a deadly foe. But a few Cybermen had wandered into its hunting range and they were destroyed allowing the third Doctor and his companion to escape and were now heading towards the top of the tower.

The fourth Doctor, having met up with his first self had set out with one of the current Doctor's companions and was heading towards the Dark Tower's main entrance. Hopefully this Doctor would be clever enough to solve the puzzles required of him to get through to the Tomb of Rassilon. The Fourth had saved Gallifrey twice in his life and the shadowy figure had seen what he could do, so he had no doubt this Doctor would penetrate the Tower's defences quickly.

However, there had been a flaw in his plan. One was in the form of the current Doctor. He'd found the Master and stolen his transmat device bringing him to the Gallifreyan citadel. This was worrying because he was more of a threat there then in the Death Zone. The shadowy figure however was confident that he had thrown off suspicion on himself by framing a member of the Timelord High Council, but the Doctor was a clever person who couldn't be deceived easily, he would soon work out something was amiss and would eventually track him down. Personally he'd be disappointed if he didn't.

The second flaw was a result of the first, because the Master couldn't get back without the transmat he was stuck in the Death Zone and to save his own skin he had allied himself with the Cybermen. The mysterious figure had expected some betrayal of some kind but he didn't foresee that the Master would lead them towards the Dark Towers entrance, blocking the fourth Doctor's advance.

Though the shadowy figure had confidence the fourth Doctor would be able to bypass the Cybermen on his own he was beginning to grow impatient. He'll have to remove the Cybermen from their position, he was too close to his goal now to simply sit back and wait. He couldn't use the Time Scoop to send the Cybermen away but he could use it to drop something else into that area to distract them and allow the Doctor to sneak past and slip into the tower. And he knew what creatures he should send to the Death Zone to fight them.

It only took him a few seconds to program the Time Scoop to pick up a patrol of these creatures on the planet Meerak during an invasion and bring them to the Death Zone. They should be more than a match for the Cybermen.

Though he couldn't hear or see it he had sensed that the door to his hideout had just silently opened and he guessed who was at the door. He allowed the intruder to come a little closer before slowly turning around to face him. As he expected, it was the Doctor, the current fair haired Doctor in his ridicules garb of a 'cricketer' he thought he called it. The Doctor stood looking at him with a look of disbelief and almost denial in his eyes.

* * *

Having tried and failed to start Bessie a dozen times over the Doctor had to regrettably abandon her to her fate. They had a mystery to uncover after all and he wasn't going to get very far if he continued to unsuccessfully start the car. She should be fine anyway because as soon as this mess was cleared up she should be sent straight back to Earth with his other self.

The Doctor's sense of direction had kicked in a little ways further down the road and he had insisted that they leave the solid road and cross over the mossy, soaking ground despite Tegans annoyance and complaints that they should stick to the road. But the Doctor insisted on this way, over the hills would be much quicker.

Reaching the top of the hill the Doctor spied the Dark Tower, looming ever larger. They would soon be there. But there was something odd. From a cliff face at the back of the tower was a long thin line that streamed out from the top of the cliff to the top of the tower. He squinted his eyes a little and could swear he could see two figures sliding down the line to the top of the tower.

Putting this out of his mind he began descending the hill and walked into a boulder field. Tegan was starting to lag behind a little and did make a mention of not liking the moist ground. Why is it all his female travelling companions chose the worst type of shoes to wear on these adventures? _They always tried to sacrifice practicality for style, I could never understand that_ he thought as he whipped his long scarf over his shoulder to prevent himself from tripping over it.

The boulders were really massive, some were the size of houses, others the size of cars all dotted around the immediate area. The rocks weren't natural to this area of Gallifrey nor were they erratics brought here by glacial movement. More a potential battle ground set up by the old Timelords for two races to fight each other he guessed. He rounded one of these small boulders with Tegan trailing a little behind and spotted something he wished he hadn't.

A group of Cybermen standing around talking to a tall, pale man in a long dark cloak and a ridicules looking beard, someone who was undoubtedly the Master. The Cybermen weren't facing him but something had alerted them because a number of them were slowly turning towards his direction. With one smooth and swift movement the Doctor stopped, spun on his heel and casually walked back behind the cover of the large boulder as if he was in no danger before they could sight him, and stopped Tegan before she stepped out into their view.

"What is it?" she asked as the Doctor flattened his back against the boulder, raising his hand to his mouth and shushed lightly to tell her to be quiet.

"Cybermen" he whispered to her "I don't think we should disturb them, they look rather busy at the moment."

"But Doctor, they're between us and the Tower" Tegan pointed out.

The Doctor raised his arms and shushed her again while he gazed glassy eyed at a large cloud of mist in the distance, then he looked like he had an idea. "Maybe if we wait they'll get rusty" he grinned at his own joke, but his grin vanished when the look on Tegan's face showed she didn't find this amusing. The Doctor then leaned a little to one side to try to catch what the Cyberleader was saying to the Master.

"Why is the main entrance unguarded?" the Cyberleader asked in his deep sounding mechanical voice.

"The Timelords didn't think anyone could survive the Zone" said a more –the Doctor hesitated to use the word human, or even Timelord- voice that practically dripped with intelligence, with subtle hint of insanity that he knew was there. Though he was in a new body the Doctor could tell it was obviously the Master "Just the kind of woolly thinking that will bring about their destruction." He finished.

"The door appears closed leader" said the lighter mechanical voice of another Cyberman.

"You will open the door for us" the Cyberleader said to the Master, who bowed respectfully at them.

"Very well" he turned to approach the tower.

"HALT!" said a metallic cry that screeched louder than any of the voices before, a voice that sent a chill running down the Doctor's spine. "You will identify yourselves" the voice ordered. The Timelord moved a little further across the boulder so he could see the new comers clearly, they couldn't be here could they?

There were four grey and black dome shaped creatures which sat on platforms covered in small black bulbs. Two attachments extended from the mid section, one resembling a manipulation suction arm, the other a powerful laser weapon, on its dome was a long stalk with an eye piece on the end and on either side of the dome were small lights that flashed on and off in time with their speech. _Oh no_, the Doctor thought _just what we needed, Daleks!_

"Halt!" the Cyberlead repeated to these new comers, "You will indentify yourselves."

"You will identify first!" the Dalek in front of his group ordered in a screech "Identify or you will be exterminated!"

"Daleks!" said the Master who coolly, though with an air of caution, approached them. The Daleks eye stalks swivelled to take him in. "I am the Master, Lord of Time and fatefully ally." He bowed towards them, a potentially fatal move on his part if they decided to exterminate him on the spot.

"Timelord!" the lead Dalek screeched advancing a little closer with an air of menace "You abducted us Timelord!" it stated.

"Far from it" the Master said defensively and without menace. "We are all in the same boat." The Cybermen seemed to watch the Masters performance with interest though they probably couldn't understand the subtly of diplomacy, even if it was being conducted by someone who couldn't have a lesser respect for the word.

"Myself and my Cybermen allies were all abducted by the Timelords to play their sick games, but you can choose not to play by their rules. We can turn on the Timelords, attack their fortress" the Master waved his hand at the tall structure that was so close and yet so far "and defeat them once and for all." What was he up to? The Doctor wondered briefly as the confrontation proceeded.

As the Master spoke the Daleks eye stalks swivelled to take in the Cybermen when the Master mentioned them. These were two mighty and dangerous creatures who had probably never met before and no doubt each was prepared to kill the other without a moment's hesitation.

When the Master had finished speaking the Daleks at first didn't speak for a few seconds as if considering and trying to understand what the Master was offering them.

"You..." the leader Dalek said extending his sucker arm towards the Master in the Dalek version of pointing "propose we allay ourselves with these Cybermen?" it asked as if it had never calculated this possibility, and as a Dalek it obviously had not. The Master nodded that this was correct, and the Dalek gave its answer. "Your request is denied!"

"Daleks be warned!" the Cyberleader said approaching the lead Daleks "If you do not ally yourself to the Cybermen you will be considered an enemy and will be eradicated. It is logical that you should join us."

"Daleks do not function on pure logic!" the lead Dalek stated it's eye stalk and limbs twitching every now and then showing that these creatures were anything but pure machines, inside the casing of each was a bubbling lump of hate. Which ironically meant the Daleks had more life in them then the emotionless Cybermen who, unlike the Daleks, just stood stiff and robot like until they had a logical reason to move.

"This is obvious" the Cyberleader answered back emotionlessly "join us and we will remove your emotions, and with your technology victory for the Cyber race will be assured."

"Pure logic is a weakness!" the Dalek screeched back "Weakness makes you inferior to the Dalek race" its gun attachment twitched a little "Daleks do not ally themselves with inferior creatures!" and with that its gun attachment raised up and a lance of blue light fired from it with a loud whining noise and impacted the Cyberleader in the stomach. The ray passed straight through the Cyberman causing his metal and plastic body to spasm and lean forwards a little, but he straightened up still alive but having sustained damage.

"With that act you have declared war upon the Cybermen" the Cyber leader stated without anger, fear or any emotion at all as he straightened up again and began to raise his own weapon to fire back.

"That is incorrect!" the Dalek said as the four tank like creatures started to slowly come closer "This is not war..." it fired another beam at the Cyberleader before he could let off a shot of his own causing his head to spontaneously blow up, and its decapitated form crumpled into a heap on the floor. "...IT IS PEST CONTROL!"

This was not good, the Doctor realised. The Cybermen and the Daleks were blocking their advance towards the Dark Tower and by the sound of it this quiet corner of the Death Zone was about to become a War Zone.

* * *

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

**Authors notes:** Daleks vs Cybermen, been done before right? Wrong! The Daleks have only ever faced off against the Pete's world Cybermen in the TV series and in that the Cybermen were far less advanced then the real Cybermen. And the Daleks in the new series are far more advanced then the Daleks of the classic series. So the Daleks and Cybermen portrayed in this chapter are on a more equal footing with each other, even though the Daleks have had the first shot it was only because the Cybermen did not consider the Daleks a threat, obvious mistake.

Though it was mentioned in 'Destiny of the Daleks' that the Daleks functioned logically I imagine at some point their programming must've altered because Daleks have often acted with cunning and with illogical thoughts and motivation in both past and future episodes of the TV series.

Hope everyone enjoyed the new chapter.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

This was a big problem, the Daleks and the Cybermen had just started a gun fight right between them and the Dark Tower, this would make getting to the Tower difficult but not impossible, the Doctor never thought of anything as impossible, impossible was just a word used by idiots to describe what they couldn't understand.

One Dalek fired at a Cyberman who winced and groaned an eerie machine yet organic groan of pain, or it could just be its repertory system malfunctioning under the bombardment, he could never tell. The Cyberman dropped his cyber-gun which was blackened and useless, but despite being disarmed the Cyberman kept coming for the Dalek who kept firing shot after shot at it. Sparks hissed from the machine creature but it was tough and better protected with its body made more of plastics then metal. Once the Cyberman reached the Dalek it grabbed the Dalek's gun stick and with tremendous strength it did not seem capable of the metal man wrenched the gun out of the Dalek casing and with an even greater feat of strength the Cyberman bent the Dalek's gun a full 180 destroying it. With the Dalek unarmed the Cyberman grabbed it by the shoulder slats to stop it retreating and with a powerful punch it broke through the Dalek casing to the squirming creature inside, white ooze and yellowish green liquid spurted out and the Dalek casing fell limp.

The Cyberman didn't have time to enjoy its victory –assuming Cybermen could enjoy anything- as a Dalek ray blasted it square in its respirator, the respirator blew with a shower of sparks and the Cyberman dropped to the floor dead.

While in the middle of a boulder field the Doctor and Tegan had plenty of cover to move around the Daleks and the Cybermen without attracting their attention, true they were more interested in their opponents at the current moment but once they caught sight of him the victor will start to pursue them into the Tower.

The Doctor stopped before breaking cover as a Dalek ray flashed past between an opening, they had to be ready to run, a moments hesitation could either mean being spotted or being shot down, the Doctor preferred the third option which was to pass by undetected and unharmed.

The Timelord waited, slowed his breathing and waiting for the right moment, he didn't exactly know when the right moment was, he was just going by guess work.

"Come on!" he said in a horse whisper and gently pulled on Tegan's arm to get her to follow as they ran from one large boulder to the next. They stopped for cover at the next boulder field and waited again. The Doctor risked a glimpse over the boulder at the battle. Thankfully for them the Daleks were far too arrogant to take cover behind the boulders believing themselves to be the superior beings and the Cybermen were equally arrogant that their technology was superior to all others –probably the only emotion Cybermen seem to posses, arrogance- either way it meant that neither thought to take cover behind these boulders therefore they could not spot their greatest enemy making a run for it.

The Doctor suddenly became aware that one enemy was missing from this battle, obviously the Master had taken this opportunity to run for it and take cover. He was a plotter and a schemer after all, not a fighter though he'd never hesitate to kill if someone gets in his way.

Sensing the timing was right the Doctor and Tegan broke cover, ran towards a much taller boulder and crouched down behind it again. There the Doctor and Tegan came across the said schemer cowering behind this very boulder.

"Well, well, well, looks like we've found a rat." The Doctor grinned at his insult. The Master spun around and worryingly seemed genuinely relieved to see him.

"Ah Doctor, it is a pleasure to finally meet this version of you again." The Master smiled smoothly though his eyes betrayed his cruel nature.

"Pleasure?" Tegan said in outrage "The last time you met the Doctor... 'this' Doctor you killed him!"

"Shhh, shh, shh, shh, shhh!" the Doctor shushed her "I'm not supposed to know my own destiny!"

"Regrettably you got in my way, Doctor" the Master said as if all he'd done –or was going to do- was borrow his car for a couple of hours.

"Well, no hard feelings, clearly I survived since I spotted my future incarnation not three hours ago." The Doctor said, but any further conversation between them was halted by a blast of rock raining down around them.

"This isn't the place for discussing this Doctor" the Master said "I suggest we retreat to a safer location." And with that the Master broke cover and rushed towards the next boulder.

"Doctor, we can't follow him!" Tegan said holding the Doctor back from following the Master.

"I don't think we have much choice Tegan, he's going the same way we are" and the Doctor and Tegan broke cover and ran after the Master.

"ALERT, ALERT!" a Dalek screeched at the top of its voice box "IT IS THE DOCTOR! THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS!" Oh blast! They'd been spotted "EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!"

The Doctor decided to forget cover and ran with Tegan on the heels of the Master across the rest of the boulder field and out into the open, the Dark Tower now just ahead of them.

"CANCEL PURSUIT!" another Dalek cried at the one following the Doctor "CYBERMEN CONSTITUTE A GREATER THREAT TO DALEK LIFE."

"I OBEY!" and the Dalek turned around and went back to aid its comrades. By the look of the battle going on it looked fairly even though the Doctor knew who he'd put his money on. The Cybermen functioned from a ground of total logic while the Daleks functioned on the grounds of hatred for anything unlike themselves, hatred that was amplified when the said unlike things started fighting back.

The Doctor and Tegan followed the Master up a long flight of stone steps which stopped at the massive wall of the Dark Tower, the fading echoes of battle still in their ears.

The Master approached what looked to be a bell on the end of a stick, but it was a bell that opened upwards on a hinge revealing a small collection of controls which the Master suspiciously seemed to know which buttons to press. The massive wall of the Dark Tower began to slide up revealing the cavernous space inside.

The Doctor didn't wait to find out how the Master knew to open the door, but a quick glance at a pattern on the control pad proved it to be some kind of mathematical conundrum. The Doctor could solve it just with a glance and it was obvious, even his younger, first self could've solved it, the answer was 42.

"How do we close the door?" Tegan shouted as the Doctor came to a stop with the Master on his heels. But there were no controls to shut the door behind them. But luckily for them the moment they passed over the threshold the massive door that had bared them entry began to descend painfully slowly.

"Triggered once we passed over the threshold I should imagine" the Doctor grinned at his own deductive skills.

Off in the distance the sounds of battle stopped and the Death Zone fell quiet, as the solid wall lowered into position with a loud clong, the Doctor and Tegan knew whichever enemy had won the battle was probably at this very moment moving towards the Tower following them.

* * *

Romana scanned the TARDIS computer console scanner, the screen showing a primitive looking digital 2D display of the Death Zone. There were three blips of different colours, each one a different Doctor. The white one, Romana knew was her Doctor, had arrived at the central point of the scanner, the Dark Tower. The other two were also at the Dark Tower but by the colour of the blips they were at different elevations, the blue one was below her Doctor the other red one was above her Doctor.

Romana tried to operate the TARDIS controls to get a proper 3D scanner display, but there was no response from it. It was as if this Doctor had recently taken the console apart before fitting it back together again and had forgotten to connect half the TARDIS facilities together.

"They are at the Dark Tower" Romana said "All of them."

"Has my Doctor re-entered the Death Zone?" Turlough asked leaning over her shoulder.

"I can't tell" Romana answered "There are five Doctors, but I'm guessing the other two are Doctors Two and Three."

"At least the others made it" Susan said still nursing a sprained ankle.

"Yes, yes" the elderly Doctor was saying as he examined the TARDIS console with a monocle in his eye "Quiet more advanced then my model" he commented "Although..." and he reached forward, took a lever and pulled, and it came free of the console in his hand "...quite shoddily put together I might add."

THUD! Came an echoing noise.

"What was that?" Turlough asked

"Scanner!" the elderly Doctor said flipping a bunch of switches that only caused the console room to dim momentarily before the lights flared back up again. Turlough reached across the console and turned a different control and the scanner screen in the wall parted.

The elderly Doctor looked outraged "Hrmph, hasn't even connected the console together correctly." The view on the scanner showed the grassy, misty view of the Death Zone outside and something else.

"Cybermen!" Susan gasped, outside there were a group of five Cybermen. The tall, silver, mechanical men they had surrounded the TARDIS and were hammering on its exterior.

"What are they doing?" Susan asked

"I think their intention is to break in" Romana said sounding concerned.

"Oh nonsense, nothing can penetrate the TARDIS doors" the old Doctor said as if such a thought was ridicules "they are as indestructible as the outer shell."

"Except if the Doctor, the most current Doctor this TARDIS belongs to..." Romana started "...has taken the entire console apart and fitted it back together again then he might've neglected to put the TARDIS shields and shell stasis emitters back together again, then it's just possible the Cybermen can break in."

"Nonsense" the first Doctor said abruptly "Even with those facilities disabled it would take more energy than a bunch of machine fists to punch down the TARDIS doors." But as the Doctor had said this more Cybermen had appeared, this time carrying a large, black box object with multiple, bendy, silver pipes sprouting from it.

"Which is what I think that is for!" Romana gasped.

"What is it?" Susan asked concerned

"Good grief!" the Doctor said recognising the seriousness of what he was seeing.

"I have limited understanding of Cyber technology" Romana said "but I suspect 'that' is a bomb."

* * *

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

**Authors notes: **Fans of Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy will remember that 42 –the number I've used as the access code to the Dark Tower- is also the answer to the life the universe and everything, at least it Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

As the Doctor, Tegan and the Master walked down the narrow stone walls of the Dark Tower, their footsteps echoing, the Doctor could not help but beam at the irony of the story the Master had just told him.

"You seriously expect me to believe you came here to help us?" Tegan asked accusingly.

"Ah, but my dear" the Master said smoothly "Do not assume I come here out of the kindness of my heart." The Doctor snorted

"Ah! You never do anything out of the kindness of your hearts. Surely the TimeLords have a reason for wanting to recover me and whatever reason that is it must be desperate enough to warrant the employment of a simple criminal."

"Oh come now Doctor" the Master said with a subtle, mock, hurt smile "You don't do me credit. When have I been a simple criminal?"

"All your schemes, all your plans boil down to a simple crime of theft, impersonation and murder. No matter how big any dictators or mad mans plans are they all boil down to the impulses and actions of a simple criminal."

"Where as your criminal acts make you better than me?" the Master asked smugly.

"My only 'criminal act' is to stop mad man like you from destroying the natural order of the universe." The Doctor shot back.

"Oh come now my dear Doctor" the Master said "The only natural order of the universe is that the strongest survive to rule over the weaker sheep of the universe, that is not so wrong from what I do."

"It is also the natural order of the universe for everything to wither and die, but you don't seem to want to follow that particular rule." The Doctor snorted again. The last time he had met the Master his form was decaying to a husk, a simple walking cadaver of his former self after using up all his remaining regenerations on pointless, failed quests for power. Yet somehow the Master had obtained a new body from somewhere which he suspected like everything the Master owned it was stolen from someone else and its previous occupant murdered.

"It is also the natural impulse of every creature to survive" the Master said

"Yet even they expire when their time comes to an end." The Doctor contested

"If early Gallifreyans never wanted to upset the universal balance they would never have developed space and time travel, we never would've reworked our genetic code to extend our lives beyond the single life we had."

"Yet the ancient Timelords saw enough sense to know when it must come to an end!" the Doctor said referring to the 12 regeneration limit on all Timelords, once the 13th life is reached the final regeneration is always a fatal one, though whether by design or because their bodies could only handle having its genetic code reshuffled 12 times the Doctor didn't know, in fact no one but Rassilon himself knew this. Their conversation was halted however when Tegan held out a hand to stop the pair of them.

"If you two are finished with this conference" she shot at them before looking down at the floor and nodding. "What is that for?"

On the floor was a square grid pattern of red and white squares of about 10 by 10 which stood out in contrast to the depressing grey stone of the walls around them, so it was clearly not for decoration then the Doctor quickly decided.

"Ah, interesting" the Doctor said kneeling down to inspect the pattern. "It's a puzzle that we most likely have to solve before we can cross to the other side."

"Why?" Tegan asked "What will happen if we try to cross it?"

"Oh, best guess we'll be blasted into oblivion" the Doctor said conversationally as he stood up and unwrapped his long scarf from around his neck and curls. Rolling just enough of it to cross the patterned floor in one hand he tossed it over to the other side. It landed and immediately after crossing the fifth square the board became a light with laser blasts that made parts of the scarf charred and blackened.

The Doctor looked on astonished and said "That's the third scarf I've had burnt like that!"

"How are we supposed to get across it?" Tegan asked as the Doctor reeled his scarf back in.

"That is indeed the question?" the Doctor looked around, there was no clue, no symbol, nothing to indicate what they had to do.

"We must have to cross it in a certain pattern" Tegan suggested.

"Well of course" the Doctor said rather pompously "No point trying to cross it and hope for the best." He muttered more to himself as if he was really considering crossing it to see what happened.

Suddenly the Master flung himself forwards onto the board and began dancing around on the squares, leaping from one side of the board to the other in succession, the Doctor sensed Tegan tense as the Master crossed the fifth square and... nothing happened. He continued and landed on the opposite side unharmed.

"How did you do that?" the Doctor asked suspiciously.

"Oh it's very simple Doctor" and the Master danced back along the board to join them again "You are getting rather slow in your old age, perhaps it is time you regenerated again." He added with a malicious, knowing tone the Doctor did not like the sound of as if he intended to do the deed himself... or he will do the deed some day in his future.

There came an echoing blast from back down the corridor they had came followed by the low whine that belonged to only the Daleks. Clearly out of the tussle between the Cybermen and the Daleks, the Daleks had been victorious, and now they were coming for them.

"THE TIMELORD HAS ESCAPED INTO THIS TOWER" one of the Daleks screeched "SEEK, LOCATE, ANNIHILATE!"

The Doctor turned back just in time to see the Master dancing down the board again leaping from square to square. But the pattern he chose was different, it was random, as if the pattern changed... or maybe it just didn't matter. The Master landed back on the other side again and before the Doctor could open his mouth to say something the Master said "Try it Doctor, honestly it's as easy as pi"

"You can't leave us here!" Tegan shouted but no sooner had the words exited her mouth then the Master had slinked around the corner and vanished.

"Easy as Pi?" the Doctor rolled in his mind, he was used to the Masters taunting but this had been more than a taunt, it had been a challenge, a challenge to unravel this conundrum himself. "Easy as Pi?"

"Doctor, hurry up! Those pepper pots are getting closer!" Tegan shouted in panic.

Just then the Doctor glanced up, and above an archway the Master had disappeared down was a symbol. It wasn't the Rassilion seal which appeared everywhere in the tower, this was a different symbol, so similar yet with subtle differences. It was theorised that part of Rassilions symbol was about the cycles of life and in the Gallifreyan language anything that references a cycle had similar annotations. The symbol was in High Gallifreyan, an ancient language spoken only by the early Timelords, fortunately the Doctor understood it naturally, though the language was not used some symbols of its alphabet had remained in use to denote constants in mathematics. The one above the door represented the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter!

"Of course!" the Doctor said smacking his own head with the flat of his hand "The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter!"

"What?"

"The Master meant Pi as in the Greek letter which refers to the constant used most in circular and harmonic mathematics. A number 3.14159265!" the Doctor shouted very fast in realisation as the Daleks slowly came closer.

"Okay, so we just jump onto each square that means each number!" Tegan said as if that was the correct conclusion "Do we start form left to right or right to left?" she asked as she raised her foot to take a step forward.

"NO!" the Doctor shouted in horror as he grabbed her before she could set a foot down. "There is more to it, the Masters pattern was too random to be those numbers and not once did he touch the edges of the platform which he must do to represent 1 and 9, there must be more to it!"

"Then what is it?" Tegan asked panic rising in her voice as the Doctor's brain went into overdrive.

The Doctor examined the symbol more carefully, part of it denoted that mathematical constant, but the other parts of the symbol expanded upon it. Part of the symbol either meant dream, brain, mind or thought!

"Of course, that's it! We don't mimic the numbers on the pattern floor" the Doctor realised "We simply have to know the answer and think of it as we cross and it won't attack us!"

"Are you sure?" Tegan asked glancing back at the bend where any second a Dalek would appear.

"No" the Doctor said flatly. "But there is a way to find out" and he raised his left, booted foot high into the air and leaned forwards and began to walk across it all the time thinking of the Pi constant, he passed the fifth row and made it to the other side in once piece. The Doctor beamed at how clever he was.

"What about me?" Tegan asked. "Just picture Pi in your mind, remember 3.14159265!" the Doctor called back.

"I hope you've got your sums right Doctor" Tegan called as she gingerly began walking across the board her eyes tight shut.

"3.14159265" the Doctor repeated for her as she passed square five and realising that she ran the rest of the way and joined the Doctor on the other side.

"You see!" the Doctor beamed again "you made it!"

"What was with all that dancing around the Master did, and what's the point of the bloody square?!" Tegan asked exasperated.

"A simple method of misdirection on both the architect and the Master. You can see how we very nearly got it wrong and assumed the board was significant, but it wasn't. The Master knew this and put on that little skipping trick to see how sharp my wit was!"

The Doctors further congratulations of himself was cut short as a Dalek energy beam fired dangerous close to both of them. The Daleks had caught up and were re-aiming their weapons to bare on the Doctor and Tegan.

The Doctor grabbed Tegan by the arm and quickly thrust her down a corridor and out of sight, the Doctor following as a Dalek beam flashed past them and the Doctor felt his brown curls burn with how close it was.

"HALT, AT ONCE, HALT! YOU MUST BE EXTERMINATED!" the Dalek shouted as if this was reason to be blasted by it. The Doctor peered from behind the wall just in time to see only two Daleks, the only two Daleks who had survived the Cybermen and were now crossing the board. As soon as the first one crossed the fifth row the board came to life and lasers and sparks of electrical discharges rained down upon them. The Daleks screamed in agony and whirled around as if their systems were in spasm.

Not wanting to watch this gruesome sight the Doctor took Tegan by the arm and said "Come on, Rassilion awaits" and they retreated away from the screams of the Daleks, there was an echoing blast that told the Doctor at least one of them had exploded and soon all was quiet.

However that didn't mean the last Dalek was dead. As the Doctor retreated the last one gently rolled off the board smoking and battle scared. It stood there for about a minute, maybe two showing no signs of life. But then its sucker arm twitched. Slowly it regained its composure, repaired its systems and its fuel of xenophobic hatred recharged.

"EX...TER...MIN...ATE!" it struggled to say "EXTER... MIN... ATE! EXTERMIN...ATE...EXTERMINATE" and slowly its battle cry became louder and louder as it slowly edges its way down the corridor after its target, the TimeLord know only as the Doctor "EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINAAAAAAATE!"

* * *

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
